Lake Macatawa Boat Launches, Marinas, and Public Access

Access is one of Lake Macatawa's quiet strengths. Plenty of Michigan lakes are effectively private; this one, covered in full in the living on Lake Macatawa guide, offers a public way in from each of its three shoreline governments plus a county marina at the channel. The details below are the current, verified versions; every operator link goes to the primary page where seasons, rules, and rates live.

The Four Public Boat Launches

Kollen Park Boat Launch (City of Holland)

The downtown option, at 250 Kollen Park Drive on the lake's east end. The city describes a hard-surfaced ramp with a minimum of 2.5 to 3 feet of water 20 feet from shore, which is worth reading twice if your boat draws much; this end of the lake is genuinely shallow. Daily and seasonal permits come from an on-site kiosk, the season runs April 1 through October 31, and the rules are specific: skid piers are for the minutes right after launching or right before pulling out, and overnight parking needs a seasonal pass plus written permission. Current rates and the full rule list are on the city's Kollen Park launch page.

The DNR Boating Access Site (Ottawa Beach Road)

The state's launch sits on the north shore about a mile east of Holland State Park, in the marina row near Anchorage and Yacht Basin, and comes with a fish cleaning station, a detail the park's own page highlights. This is the launch closest to the channel, which makes it the natural choice for a day that ends on Lake Michigan. Like Michigan's other state boating access sites, it runs on the Recreation Passport rather than a per-launch fee.

Howard B. Dunton Park Launch (Holland Charter Township)

The north side's answer to Kollen Park: a 21-acre township park at 290 Howard Avenue near the lake's east end, with a boat launch, an ADA-compliant floating dock, an ADA-compliant kayak launch, a fishing pier, and boardwalks along the shoreline. Rates and hours are posted on the township's launch page. Dunton also quietly settles a trivia question: yes, Holland Charter Township really does have Lake Macatawa waterfront. The park's corner of the lake, river mouth and all, is toured in the eastern end guide.

South Side Kayak and Boat Launch (Park Township)

The fourth ramp completes the compass: Park Township's lakefront park at 1671 South Shore Drive on the lake's south shore, listed on the township's parks page with a boat launch and the current details kept there. The township's 2025 master plan separately describes Trust-Fund-backed improvements to its south-shore lakefront under the name South Shore Community Landing, with a universally accessible kayak launch, open green space, and benches; both names appear across township materials, so confirm specifics with the township before hauling a trailer south. The neighborhoods around this stretch of shore are covered in the South Shore guide.

The Public Marina: Ottawa Beach

Ottawa County Parks runs the small Ottawa Beach Marina at 2330 Ottawa Beach Road, just inside the channel next to Holland State Park, open April 15 through October 31 with no entry or launch fees. It is the closest dockage on the lake to Lake Michigan, and it anchors the historic Ottawa Beach neighborhood, which has its own area guide. The county's marina page lists 16 seasonal slips, 4 moorings, 6 personal watercraft ports, and 30 kayak racks; its boating overview page lists 26 transient slips, 15 seasonal slips, and 5 moorings. Those two pages plainly disagree, so treat the counts as approximate and check with the county for what is actually available; transient reservations are handled online per the county boating page.

Note the shape of those dates: early April to the end of October is the published boating season at the city ramp and the county marina alike. What the other months hold, and what year-round owners should ask about them, is the year-round living guide's territory.

The Private Marinas

Serious slip capacity on this lake is private, and three names carry most of it. Eldean Shipyard on the south shore began in 1901 as the Jesiek Brothers boatyard and runs roughly 330 slips with full service. Yacht Basin Marina on the north side has operated for more than 60 years, takes boats up to about 70 feet, and runs in/out rack and heated storage. Anchorage Marina, at 1800 Ottawa Beach Road, offers slips, fuel, and pump-out in the same north-shore row as the DNR launch. A 2017 Coast Guard Auxiliary boating map also labels several smaller operations around the lake, including the Macatawa Bay Yacht Club, Parkside, Lake Ranch, and SummerPlace marinas; this site will cover those individually as their details are verified.

Kayaks, Paddleboards, and the Quiet Corners

Paddlers have it good here. The county's universal kayak launch at Ottawa Beach Marina is free, Dunton Park's kayak launch is ADA-compliant, and Holland State Park lists paddling and paddlesport rentals among its activities. Better still, the state's own watercraft controls make the northern bays genuinely paddle-friendly: Big Bay, off Waukazoo's shore, is slow-no-wake for every vessel, and Pine Creek Bay prohibits high-speed boating from evening until 11 a.m. in daylight-saving season. On a July morning, that is the difference between sharing water with wakes and having glass to yourself.

Beaches and Getting to the Water on Foot

Here is the disambiguation nobody states plainly: when people picture "the beach" at Lake Macatawa, they are almost always picturing the Lake Michigan beach at Holland State Park, the sugar-sand stretch by Big Red at the channel. The park has separate Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan units, lists swimming among its activities, and flies the standard beach warning flags. On the Macatawa side itself, shoreline access for non-boaters means the parks: Kollen Park's downtown waterfront, Dunton Park's boardwalks and fishing pier, and the county's fishing piers by the marina. For whether and where to swim, and what the water testing actually shows, see this site's guide to swimming and water quality on Lake Macatawa.

Notes for Your First Launch Here

Three things make first trips smoother. The lake is shallow away from the dredged channel, so watch the markers even mid-lake. The buoy convention through the lake and channel follows the standard rule the local Coast Guard Auxiliary brochure spells out: green aids to the right heading out toward Lake Michigan, red to the right coming home. And the slow-no-wake rules, mapped zone by zone in the no-wake rules guide, are enforced with real patrols, including everywhere within 300 feet of shore, docks, and pierheads for boats under 26 feet and 600 feet for larger ones. Swimming in the entrance channel is illegal outright, and has been since 1978.

Common Questions